Popular Favorites 1976-1992: Sand in the VaselineThe Best of Talking Heads: Once in a LifetimeThe Best of Talking HeadsOpen Season [Original Soundtrack]Wild Wild Life [Single]Same as It Ever WasTrue StoriesVol. 2-3 For 1 Box SetOnce in a Lifetime

Here on this mountaintop oh oh oh
I got some wild, wild life
I got some news to tell ya oh oh
About some wild, wild life
Here come the doctor in charge oh oh oh
She's got some wild, wild life
Ain't that the way you like it oh oh
Living wild, wild life

I wrestle, with your conscience
You wrestle, with your partner
Sittin' on a window sill
But he spends his time behind closed doors

Check out Mister Businessman oh oh oh
He bought some wild, wild life
On the way to the stock exchange oh oh oh
He got some wild, wild life
Break it up when he opens the door oh oh oh
He's doin' wild, wild life
I know that's the way you like it oh oh
Living wild, wild life

Peace of mind?
Piece of cake!
Thought control!
You get on board anytime you like

Like sittin' on pins and needles
Things fall apart, it's scientific

Sleeping on the interstate oh oh oh
Getting wild, wild life
Checkin' in, checkin' out! Uh, huh!
I got a wild, wild life
Spending all of my money and time oh oh oh
Done too much wild, wild
We want to go, where we go, where we go oh oh oh
I doing wild, wild life
I know it, that's how we start oh oh oh
Got some wild, wild life
Take a picture, here in the daylight oh oh
They got some wild, wild life
You've grown so tall, you've grown so fast oh oh oh
Wild, wild
And I know that's the way you like it oh, ho!
Living wild wild wild wild, life

22 Comments

My InterpretationThe impression I get from the music video and the song is having to do with drugs. Wild WIld Life itself makes me think of just being on a constant high and going to clubs in the eighties at night then go to wall street and mess around with the stock market. I heard that in the eighties alot of the business men were doing cocaine practicaly all the time. Also maybe certain prescription drugs (here comes the doctor shes got some wild wild life) (checking in checkin out) (spending all my money) go to work leave then get high. Just basicaly living in excess and doing cocaine. THe video on youtube reminds me of eighties night clubs where everyone was doing cocaine and things were just crazy and out of sight. Not everything that an exalted artist makes has to be so complicated that its meaning reflects some complicated phylisophical view it could just be straight forward but worded briliantly.

General CommentWhat a great video as well. This song made me want to run right out and see the film(but it was three years before I ever saw the film from the time this song came out).
In my youth, I recall sleeping on the interstate: not fun.
"Check out Mr. Business Man...". I guess the stress of working the Stock Exchange drove him nuts.

General CommentDB seems to like the financial services metaphors: in addition to this song's "Check out Mr. Businessman", there's "Stockbroker make a bad investment when love has come to town" from (what else?) "Love Has Come to Town."

General CommentI came here to see if anyone agreed with my thoughts on this song, and I suppose they don't. After hearing it I really assumed it was about taking drugs in some form. Wild life seems like it could almost be replaceable by "drugs" in a general sense: both medicated drugs or recreational, either works. Hence buying wild life on the way to the stock exchange, or having the head doctor give it to you.

General Commenti agree with caleddin i felt it was about drug use
Like sittin' on pins and needles
Things fall apart, it's scientific
meaning the hi then down side after. but still very up moveing song

General CommentDefinitely about drugs, most likely cocaine as that was the drug of the 80s... from the casual users looking for a good time, to the businessman who uses cocaine to keep up with the frantic pace of the stock exchange, and the addicted: "Spending all of my money and time/Done too much wild, wild life"

General CommentThis song explains the scientific process of the NSA's brainwashing technology. The song gave an example of what the audible transmission sounded like at the end of the song (like a tape on fast forward). The musical group had spent "All their time and money" unsuccessfully trying to find a place that
the NSA would not be able to harass them. The Talking Heads exposed the technology, gave an example of what it sounds like, scenarios of how the NSA might select you for the brainwashing, and the scope of
the electronic surveillance system.

"Here comes the doctor in charge" implies the psychiatrist that is in charge of their mind control/brainwashiong team. She wrestles with the conscience of the busnessman in order to provoke him into wrestiling with his partner.
"Thought control" implies thought control through remote technology.
"Checking in and checking out" implies having to sign in and out of the holspital unit every time a patient goes for a smoke or otherwise leaves the area. They treat patients like children who have no rights.

So, the "Wild Wild Life" is one of thought control running wild and causing an increasing number of people to fall victim to it.

There are a number of other songs about the same thing. "Brother Where Ya Bound" by Supertramp starts off with a clip from the movie 1984:
"All persons whom we bring to this place are washed clean (brainwashed) Winston. The execution of their sentences is relatively unimportant. By the time we are finished with them there is nothing left in them but sorrow for what they have done and love for Big Brother. Isn't it touching to see how they love Big Brother?"

The support for your interpretation is there - look at the audience of just normal middle class Americans, unsuspecting of what they could step into if they aren't careful. How this mimicks places like Nashville or the "Live Musical Capital of the World".. Branson in Missouri. People such as these in the vid, flock to these places looking for the great life of entertainment. But what do you find...people like Jerry Lee Lewis, Kris Kristopherson, Jimmy Buffet and all the other Wizards of Oz (mind control handlers). It's everywhere in Hollywood... read Cathy O'Brien's book (Trance Formation of America) or Brice Taylor's book "Thanks for the Memories" - Bob Hope was her mind control handler.

That is only the start...think of the social psychological engineering and all the technology now to remotely affect the mind.

I know of a businessman in the 80's who got him some wild wild life - and he ended up in the looney bin several times where they did all kinds of things to him.

Peace of mind?
Piece of cake!
Thought control!
You get on board anytime you like

Not to mention he's now living under a railroad bridge.

Sleeping on the interstate
Woah ho ah
Getting wild, wild life

Little did he know that the high life he enjoyed back in the 80's and on into the 90's would completely ruin him forever. He mutters and walks around and hears voices all day. I'm sure he'd say:

Spending all of my money and time
Oh, ho ho
Done too much wild, wild
We wanna go, where we go, where we go
Oh, ho ho!
I doing wild, wild
I know it, that's how we start
Uh, huh
Got some wild, wild life

@SZG If I had stumbled upon this page, your interpretation of the lyrics would probably have occurred to me. However, I came here because somebody had suggested this interpretation of the lyrics to me. I had not heard the song beforehand, to my recollection.

Having come here to check out somebody else's suggestion that this song was about the issue that you also suggest it was about, in case the song could be used to raise awareness of that issue, I was disappointed. The lyrics are consistent with your interpretation but, without more, they do not compel your interpretation, even to an activist like myself about that very issue.

By all means email me. I am willing to share what other evidence there is that Talking Heads addressed the issue that you (SZG), think this song is all about, and interpretation I do respect.